Alan Turing: The Enigma - Centenary Edition (Paperback)

from clfisha

A fascinating, detailed biography of a hugely important but largely unknown figure.I mean all I knew about Alan Turning was his legacy in computer science but he was much more than that. He started life as a mathematician then WWII directed him into cryptanalysis (the infamous Enigma machine), af...

from neddludd

This was possibly the most difficult biography I have ever read. Although it says it was written with lay people in mind, the author is a mathematical physicist at Oxford and probably has a different conception of his audience. Hodges' prose is elegant and dense, and be prepared for a serious rea...

from GeoffSC

An amazing in depth biography, the author really tried to get into Alan Turing's shoes and mind. Alan was a very intelligent but complex person, made more difficult since he was a homosexual at a time of no rights for such people. Alan's life is covered from early days of family life, following h...

from natureinthecity

I got through "The Enigma" only recently. When I say I "got through" I mean it. Being 540 pages of very small print, it was conquered over weeks. It was worth it. Turing was a fascinating person with a very rich story which Hodge's provides in the form of anecdotes from family and colleagues, let...

from tikitu-reviews

A good biography, which manages to balance an explicit "gay agenda" along with the more impartial account of his intellectual life and peculiarities of character. It's an academic work with all sources carefully cited, which I appreciated also. Turing of course comes across as a very sympathetic ...